Memories and You
by Skye1963
Summary: While going through the storage room in the bunker, Dean comes across three boxes that hold memories of everyone except for one very important person. He decided to fix it and give Sam a very big surprise at the same time.


_Okay, this story has been bugging me ever since season eight started. As usual, I don't own anything other than my imagination and any OC I come up with. Erik Kripke is a very lucky man to own Supernatural and its characters._

Memories and You

As Dean was going through the storage room at the bunker, he found a very familiar box that he thought he had put in one of his dad's storage units. It was the box of photographs they had retrieved from their old house in Lawrence after Mary sacrificed her afterlife for her sons. At first, Dean was going to put the box back where he found it but then nostalgia hit him and he decided to take a walk down memory lane. Sam had gone out to do the grocery shopping so Dean knew he had some time. Grinning he opened the box and found, to his surprise, that someone, probably Sam, had taken the time to organize the pictures into small, thick photo albums. Each album was labeled with the years it spanned and Dean was shocked to find one labeled 2012-2013.

Shaking his head, Dean found the album marked 1979-1983. Opening it, he started to look at the pictures of his mom, dad and himself. He smiled as tears ran down his face when he remembered all the good times he had before his mom was killed by Azazel. Strangely, though, as Dean finished the album, he saw that the last pictures in the album were of his fourth birthday. He remembered how much fun he had at the party his mom spent hours planning and executing. She had invited all his friends from the neighborhood and the daycare he went to. Smiling with bittersweet memories dancing in his head, Dean closed the album and found the next labeled 1983-1989.

In the album he now held open, he found pictures of Pastor Jim and Bobby along with pictures of himself and John. There were also letters and awards that he had received in school along with drawings he had done. Something started to bug him but Dean couldn't figure it out as he looked at the pictures through tears. Bobby had given Dean a special photo one year of the two of them and that one was put in a gilded frame as was the picture of Pastor Jim reading to a sick Dean, making him feel better.

The next album, labeled 1990-1995, Dean found pictures of Joshua, Caleb and Rufus along with the pictures of John, Bobby, Dean and Jim. There was one with a green-haired Caleb chasing a laughing Dean around Jim's property, Bobby and John soaked after a prank played by Joshua, and so on. Report cards, birthday cards from the family for Dean and pictures of his early girlfriends graced that album but the thought something was missing started to nag at Dean's heart. Something was not right and the album was unfinished even though there wasn't a page left.

1996-2001 had more pictures of the family but also the most prominent one was the Impala that Dean had received on his sixteenth birthday. Dean stood proudly by his baby, a very large smile graced his face and the leather jacket that had been their father's graced his back. One picture had him catching his breath, the first time he had met Lisa. Other girlfriends and his guy friends looked out of the album happily smiling at the camera. Again, though, something was definitely missing and Dean just couldn't figure it out.

2001-2006 was filled with pictures of Cassie, John, Bobby, Jim, Caleb, Joshua, Rufus, Missouri and even Pamela. The Impala had her own pages during those years as well as letters of thank you from some of the people that had been saved during the hunts he had done with John. There were even pictures from Mardi Gras, in 2004 and some Christmas photos taken in 2003 at Jim's. The faces of some of the girls he had known were also in the album but again, something was missing but now, it started to tug at Dean's heart. Something important wasn't in that album.

2006-2011 was a surprise. There was a copy of the picture of the group before they left for Carthage. Pictures of Chuck, Gabriel, Balthazar, Anna and Castiel were also in the album along with Jodie, Pamela, Ash, Ellen and Jo. Bobby figured prominently in this album researching, cooking or working on cars. Dean laughed as he saw the picture of his mug shot. He shook his head and wondered how that one got in the album. One picture really hurt and that was the one of his own grave. Bobby stood next to it with his head bowed in grief and prayer. Pictures of Lisa and Ben graced the album also as did the pictures of Adam and Kate. Tears started to flow out of Dean's eyes as he looked at his lost family, something he had given up a long time ago when the supernatural world threatened them. There was one surprising piece of paper that had been put in the album and that was of a DNA test that showed Ben was truly his son. A copy of Ben's birth certificate, naming Dean Winchester as his father, was on the opposite page. The last page of the album was surprising as it held a family photo of the Campbells and one of Samuel Colt.

2012-2013 was unfinished but had other photos of Benny, Castiel, Dean, Meg, the Impala, Kevin and Mrs. Tran along with pictures of Samandriel and Elizabeth. There were also pictures of Henry Winchester, Aaron and the golem. More letters were also placed in this album along with a surprise: an official pardon of Dean Winchester by the current president of the United States. The letter next to that explained it was a thank you to Dean for getting rid of Dick Roman and saving the world. There was also a medal that had been put in the album from Congress, the closest one that a civilian could get to the Congressional Medal of Honor. The nagging feeling started to become like a heated poker in Dean's heart. These albums as nice as they were just were not complete but Dean couldn't put a finger on how.

After he put the albums back in the box and the lid back on, he noticed another box underneath it. Curious, he opened it to find a hat that had belonged to Bobby Singer; his old leather jacket; a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue; Mary's charm bracelet; John's wedding ring; Jim's rosary; Pamela's crystal ball; Ellen's wedding ring; Jo's favorite necklace; Missouri's spoon; Meg's necklace; feathers from Gabriel, Balthazar, Samandriel, Anna, and Castiel; Ash's wristwatch; Joshua's fuzzy dice; the Wendigo mask that Ben had made; a ring Dean had given Lisa; Caleb's favorite knife; and Dean's teddy bear from when he was three. There was even a full set of the Winchester Gospels in the box and one tiny box. Picking it up, Dean opened it to find a diamond ring he had never seen before. As he gazed at it, he suddenly realized what was missing out of the two boxes that made the memories incomplete. Sam wasn't in either of the boxes. There were no pictures of his brother and nothing in the artifact box that had been his either. The only thing that remotely was connected to Sam was the ring he was going to give Jess before she died. Gently, he closed the box and put it with the other one.

Dean didn't say anything to his brother when Sam got back with the groceries. He looked all over the place for something that said Sam but he never asked his brother about the discrepancies in the memory boxes, as he privately called them. It took him three weeks before he found a small locked box covered with sigils and Enochian writing. Since Sam was out at the library, Dean decided to pick the lock and check out what was in it. When he finally got it opened, he found his amulet and Sam's bracelet but that was all. There were no pictures of Sam; no report cards showing his straight As, the acceptance letter from Stanford as well as Sam's diploma were also missing. Even the pictures Dean knew his brother had had at one point of Jess were missing. Dean closed and locked the box then put it back where he had found it.

Wondering if Sam had kept the pictures in his room, Dean went to look but when he got there, he gaped. Sam's room had nothing of his personality in it. The bed was made with military precision and Sam's clothes were neatly put away but there was nothing in the room that screamed someone lived there. Dean had decorated his room down to the memory foam mattress he had bragged about. Sam's bed was barely big enough for Dean's 6'4" brother. Dean went to his own room and sat down to think. Sam barely made an impression in the bunker. One of his only possessions sat on the table in the library, the laptop computer, but that was it. It was if Sam himself didn't exist and that didn't sit right with Dean but he knew he couldn't ask his brother about it. He doubted that Sam knew his own reasons for not having anything personal around.

As Dean thought about it, he realized what Sam had done. He had gathered all of Dean's memories of family and put them in boxes for his brother. He made sure that Dean had only the good memories and nothing of the bad. Dean was devastated to realize Sam believed himself to be a bad memory and became determined to rectify the mistake he felt Sam had made but it would take some help to do. Since there was time before Sam came back, Dean started to call some friends for help. He called Missouri, Jodie, Mrs. Tran and Benny with his requests. As one, they all agreed to help him with his own project. He even prayed to Castiel for help and received a warm feeling as a reply. Now, he sat back and waited until he got the final pieces to the puzzle together.

It took another three weeks of gathering the material and putting it together with the memory boxes but Dean was finally ready for his brother. One day, while he was going through artifacts in the storage room, he brought out the three boxes and put them on the table where Sam was working.

"Hey Sammy, wonder what's in these boxes. They look newer than any of the other ones," Dean said brightly as he pretended he didn't know what was in them.

Sam looked up and paled when he saw what Dean brought out. "Uh…I…uh," he said, not wanting to lie to his brother. Dean just grinned and opened the first which contained the photo albums.

Opening the first album, which was larger than the one Sam had gotten, and smiled at the pictures he saw. The first was a wedding photo which Missouri had sent of their mother and father. Dean sat next to Sam and made his brother look at each photo while he talked about them, something he had refused to do when they were growing up. Then Dean came to the next new addition to the album, Sam's sonogram picture with the words "It's a boy!" printed on it in Mary's handwriting. Sam's eyes began to fill with tears as he realized that Dean had somehow added pictures of him to the albums of Dean's life. There was even an article about Mary's death in the album which ended with a picture of baby Sam having a sprig of mistletoe held above him by Dean while his big brother gave him a kiss on the head on Sam's first Christmas. Sam looked up tearily and Dean smiled at him then pulled the next album out. Dean made sure they went through each album to show the new additions that were part of Sam's life.

Missouri took a picture of Stull Cemetery where Sam had thrown himself in the Cage. She also got the announcements from the papers of both Sam and Dean's birth to John and Mary Winchester. Jodie had gone to one of Bobby's storage units to retrieve pictures of Sam with the family, especially with Dean. She found, also, Sam's baby blanket that had been left at Bobby's as well as his favorite stuffed dog. Benny sent things from John's lockup, things like Sam's soccer trophy, all his report cards and even the dean's list from Stanford showing Sam at the top of his class. Becky sent pictures of Sam and his friends at Stanford along with a copy of his diploma and LSATs. She also sent pictures of Sam and Jess, ones that showed how much in love they had been. Mrs. Tran had gone to Amelia and asked for a picture of her and Riot which were now included in the album while Castiel managed to retrieve the pardon the president had given Sam for his own actions with the leviathans. There were also pictures of the three of them, Sam, Dean and Cas having fun either by playing jokes and pranks on each other or just enjoying being together. The last picture that was in the albums was one of Dean and Sam curled up sleeping together soon after Dean had gotten back from Purgatory. On that picture was the word "brothers". In the background of the picture, there was a faint outline of wings as an Angel watched over the two of them.

Then Dean took the tiny locked box and opened it. Taking out the bracelet, he put it back on Sam's right wrist then, while his eyes were staring straight into his brother's, Dean took the amulet out and put it on. "I wanted to show you that the memories you put together were incomplete since you were not part of them. Sammy, you are my memory box, my family. Without you _I_ would be incomplete." Then he put the box down and stood up. Grabbing his brother, he pulled Sam up also and started to walk them to his next surprise. When he got to Sam's room, he opened the door and pushed his brother in. To Sam's surprise, there were framed pictures on his wall of his family: Dean, Cas, Gabriel, Balthazar, Meg, Bobby, John, Mary, Jess, Amelia, Lisa, Ben, Rufus, Jim, Joshua, Missouri, Jodie, Adam, Kate, Caleb, and many more but what really surprised Sam was that Dean's weapons that he had in his own room along with his bed and clothes were also in there. Stunned, he looked at his brother who just shrugged and said, "Your room should reflect who you are. These pictures," Dean pointed to the photos, "show your family. These weapons," he pointed then to the weapons, "show you are a hunter. The books," he turned Sam around so he could see the bookshelves filled with books he had loved as a child, "show your geeky side and the globe," again he turned Sam to show him the globe on a desk with his laptop, "represents the fact you died for the world. Me, my bed, is there because you are my brother and nothing will ever change that and I would never want to anyway."

Then Dean turned away and said gruffly, tears evident in his voice, "I just want to say thank you for the memories, little brother but without you, they are incomplete. Thank you, Sammy."

Sam turned his brother around and looked down at the amulet that was back where it was supposed to be, "I love you too, Dean. Thanks."

For the rest of the day, Dean and Sam put the memories that were in the boxes around their room. For the first time in a very, very long time, neither brother had a nightmare that night, surrounded by their family and friends.

_Reveiws are always welcomed. Please tell me what you think. *smiles*_


End file.
